ECE 605: Children and Families in a Diverse Society
Dr. Rhonda Welch-Scalco
April 8, 2013

Children with Linguistic DifferencesIn today’s classroom, it is common to have a student who speaks English as a second language. The teachers today should have knowledge of linguistic diversity and apply what they know to assist those children. According to our text, language is one of the aspects that define diversity and it is one of the fundamental tools of cultural acquisition and a part of a child’s cultural identity (Robles de Melendez & Beck, 2009). As educators, we must assure those children who speak English as a second language have the same education as English speaking children.

In a child’s learning environment, no matter what language that child speaks, they should be comfortable and familiar with the things that surround them. It is important to label a child’s environment with the different languages that the children speak in the classroom. If a child’s native language is Spanish, French or German, there should be a corresponding labels in that language on shelves, tables, toys and doors. Other materials that is used in a classroom that assist with linguistic diversity is age appropriate books, printed materials such as newspapers, flyers and signs in different languages and music from diverse cultures (Robles de Melendez, 2009).

When you have a classroom of different languages, it is necessary to understand what is going on in the children’s mind as you speak a language that they are not familiar or comfortable with. We need to understand, expect, and feel comfortable with the natural responses (e.g., laughter, first language use, silence and fatigue) that occur when our students participate in interactions in which they are not completely proficient in their language (Curran, 2003). Teachers should respect the fact that students that are English Language...

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...firstly explain the meaning of the following terms, communicative competence and metalinguistic awareness. Observations have shown that children do imitate older peers and adults when speaking as well as signs of creativity from an early age when developing language. Then the second section will evaluate the roles of creativity and imitation in regards to learning spoken English. This assignment will focus on the spoken English of young children.
Part 1
Communicative competence - Is a term that refers to the way in which a language user communicates efficiently and successfully depends upon their communicative competence. Linguist Noam Chomsky depicted a variation within the term ‘linguistic’ which he divided into to competence and performance. The term linguistic performance is associated with incorrectly and/or repeated ungrammatical delivered actual utterances of language in use. Linguistic competence refers to the knowledge of the language system which will enable the speaker to distinguish the utterances that are grammatical in the language from those that are not. (Chomsky, 1965 cited in Book3, pg 48) However linguist Hymes believed speakers need to attain distinctive skills in performance such as what is the socially appropriate turn of phrase to accomplish the desired effect as well as knowing when to speak. With regards to children as well as learning the construction and...

...Gage, 1987). Instances of cultural language differences are evidenced in that some languages have specific words for concepts whereas other languages use several words to represent a specific concept. For example, the Arabic language includes many specific words for designating a certain type of horse or camel (Crystal, 1987). To make such distinctions in English, where specific words do not exist, adjectives would be used preceding the concept label, such as quarter horse or dray horse.
Cultural differences have also been noted in the ways in which language is used pragmatically. In our American culture, new skills are typically taught and learned through verbal instruction (Slobin, 1979). In some cultures, new skills are learned through nonverbal observation. A distinction has also been made between cultures that encourage independent learning and those that encourage cooperative learning (McLeod, 1994).
Differences in the social roles of adults and children also influence how language is used. Home and school contexts may represent different cultures, subcultures, or both and may influence language acquisition in noticeable ways. Nonverbal cues (e.g., facial expression) and contextual cues (e.g., shared experience) have different communicative roles in different cultures (Kaiser &amp; Rasminsky, 2003). In some cultures, prelinguistic children (who are not yet verbalizing) are spoken about rather...

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a. They specify the limits on possible differences between languages
b. They do not belong to Universal Grammar #
c. Their values must be “set” on the basis of experience
2. From the viewpoint of the principles-and-parameters theory, the process of language acquisition consists of:
a. Setting the choice for each parameter that fits the language that is being acquired #
b. Storing words and sentences in memory
c. Learning the order in which words occur in sentences
3. If some property X is true for all languages, we can conclude that:
a. X may be a property that all and only languages have (i.e. a language-unique universal) #
b. X must be a general property of all cognitive systems
c. X is determined by the universal human articulatory apparatus
4. The fact that young infants do not forget about objects that they have seen after these objects have been taken away is called:
a. object shift
b. habituation
c. object permanence #
5. Consider the following two question sentences:
i. When did the boy say he fell out of the tree?
ii. When did the boy say how he fell out of the tree?
The first question is ambiguous because:
a. It is not clearly formulated
b. It has two different underlying deep structures #
c. It has one sentence embedded in another sentence
6. The statement: perception is ahead of production means that:
a. Children can articulate words before they can recognize and understand them
b....

...and creating their own style with the American dialect. They speak with pride.
Other people in such places like Illinois or Michigan have been changing the pronunciation of their words dramatically. For instance, the word “black” sounds like “block” or “bosses” sounds like “buses.” If an outsider were to come in and live in these areas they would have many circumstances where he/she would get confused due to these pronunciations. Due to the way different groups of people pronounce words, linguistic profiling can occur.
Another intriguing point that was made in the video is when Stanford graduate, John Baugh, made calls to real estate agencies with different accents. He made a few different calls, one as an African American, one as a Hispanic and another as a Caucasian. Many times when he made these calls he noticed that the operator would address him with different answers on available homes depending on what accent he used. He figured out that the Real Estate Agency had been linguistic profiling. Due to the way one sounded, they would determine if the person calling was able to afford the houses or not. If one were to sound Black or Hispanic, many times the operator would say that no houses were available. I have always know that racial profiling existed in our society but never would I have that the same concept applied to language too.
From watching this video I have realized that although America might be one country, each state acts...

...How does linguistic variation cue representations of a speaker’s social identity and, presumably, stereotypes about relevant social groups? Although studies have indicated that phonetic variation in speech may activate social stereotypes (Purnell, Idsardi & Baugh, 1999), research on the mechanisms of this process has been scant. The term “stereotype” was introduced into the variations of sociolinguistic literature in Labov’s (1973) taxonomy of language forms charged with broad social meaning, reprised in Labov (2001). The first element in this classification, “indicators”, are variables whose use is restricted to certain social groups, but whose use “shows zero degree of social awareness and are difficult to detect for both linguists and native speakers” (Labov 2001, p. 196). “Markers”, the second category, occur when “indicators” rise to the level of social consciousness. They exhibit “social recognition usually in the form of social stigma…” (Labov 2001, p. 197) The third linguistic element is that of “stereotypes”. Labov (1973, p. 314) defines these as “socially marked forms, prominently labeled by society.” Labov (1973) elaborates, stating: “stereotypes are referred to and talked about by members of the speech community; they may have a general label, and a characteristic phrase which serves equally well to identify them”
As they grow, children learn to become members of the cultures into which they are born, it is from here...

...Cultural and LinguisticDifferences
Cultural and LinguisticDifferences
Shabana P. Siddiqui
ECE 405: Children and Families in a Diverse Society
Inst. Lammert-Arndt
6/14/12
LinguisticDifferences 01
People from all walks of life have gathered in the United States to live their lives. What
follows is a flood of cultural and linguisticdifferences. The way one person from a particular
culture would say” hi” could be another person’s cultural way of saying “bye”. When children
from different cultures, who have had cultural teachings instilled in them, unite in a classroom
setting, there is some amount of confusion and frustration. Maria a Spanish student in Mr.
Bennett’s class, is experiencing difficulty in her classroom assignments and in expressing herself
in the classroom.
Marias bilingualism is addressed with frustration and hopelessness. Mr. Bennett
expresses frustration about Marias lack of comprehension and that her parents are not
responding to his notes. Mr. Bennett has good interests and wants to help Maria but he isn’t sure
how to go about it. Maria’s unwillingness to respond to Mr. Bennett in the classroom can be due
to cultural differences. It’s possible that students in Mexico do not freely...

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TERM PAPER :CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS
Introduction:
Contrastive Linguistics, roughly defined as a subdiscipline of linguistics which is concerned with the comparison of two or more (subsystems of) languages, has long been associated primarily with language teaching. Apart from this applied aspect, however, it also has a strong theoretical purpose, contributing to our understanding of language typology and language universals.
The study of two languages in contrast, here called contrastive analysis, has been referred to by a variety of names, not all of which mean the same to all writers. One can find the following terms used: contrastive studies, contrastive language studies, contrastive linguistics, applied contrastive studies, contrastive description and others. contrastive analysis investigates the differences between pairs (or small sets) of languages against the background of similarities and with the purpose of providing input to applied disciplines such as foreign language teaching and translation studies. With its largely descriptive focus contrastive linguistics provides an interface between theory and application. It makes use of theoretical findings and models of language description but is driven by the objective of applicability. Contrastive studies mostly deal with the comparison of languages that are ‘socio-culturally linked’, i.e. languages whose speech communities...

...﻿Write about the 2 theories of 1st language acquisition and choose which most tenableand provide examples and relevant literature one you find
Michelle
In this essay, I will explain as well as compare two theories of first language acquisition, behaviorism and innatism. I will explore the differences between them in such categories as the role of the learner, the role of the environment and as well as their strengths and weaknesses. I will then state and explain which one I find more tenable with examples of relevant literature.
Role of the Learner
Behaviorism, credited to B.F. Skinner in the 1950s, states that the learner knows nothing to start with, he is an empty slate [o1] to be taught. The learner is passive and learns by positive-negative reinforcement, only repeating what he hears.
Innatism, credited to Noam Chomsky in 1965, states that the learner is wired from birth for language. The learner is equipped with a LAD, a language acquisition device. This device allows the learner to discover the rules of his language, any language.
Role of the Environment
Behaviorism states that the role of the environment is key and vital to the learning process. The environment is the active agent while the learner is the passive agent. The environment produces the necessary language input for the learner. It is up to the environment to give positive and negative reinforcement for the learner.
Innatism states that the role of the environment is minimal...